


The Chrysalids

by sapphirelight



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Chrysalids - John Wyndham, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Felicity from a different reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 19:46:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4848134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphirelight/pseuds/sapphirelight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity is from a different reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Chrysalids

# Chrysalids

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is not intended as copyright infringement and no gain, monetary or otherwise, is received for the writing of this work of fiction.**

## Chapter 1

Team Arrow was in Central City and they had just helped them solve a case involving a person from another universe. Everyone was at the Star labs chatting amongst each other when Cisco’s curiosity got the better of him.

“Hey Felicity, I know you gave me a look that said ‘don’t ask but I just have to; the indicator spiked when we turned it on and it showed high level alternate matter around you. And I checked it twice; the reading were accurate, so I have to ask; are you from an alternate universe?”

Everyone looked her, Oliver walked up to her from where he stood talking to Barry, “Hey, you don’t need to answer. If anyone understands the need to keep the past in the past it’s me.” he sensed her distress at the question.

“No, I think it’s better to get it out now,” she nodded, lacing their fingers together, her engagement ring sparkling in the light. “Our wedding is coming up and I’d like to invite my brother and his wife to it without lying. And everyone here so there won’t need any repeat. And until recently, I mean after the Particle Accelerator explosion, the whole alternate reality seemed too farfetched for anyone to believe me so I never told anyone.”

“Hey, breathe. Take your time. Start from the beginning.” Oliver soothed her. She looked at everyone; Oliver, Thea, John, Laurel, Barry, Caitlin and Cisco; all looking at her with all their attention.

“Umm, the beginning right.” She nodded. “Well my name isn’t Felicity Smoak, its Petra Storm. I guess the deviation from my old world to this one is that during World War Two, the atomic bombs did more damage than they did in this world compared to my old one.” She laughed humourlessly, “’More damage’ sis a severe understatement. After the bombs dropped most of the world became uninhabitable, there were wide spread mutations with plant life and humans. Every territory that there were inheritance, there was a different view of what was normal. But where I lived they followed a strict practised form of fundamentalist Christianity with post-apocalyptic prohibitions. I could still remember Sunday school teachings:

_“And God created man in His own image. And God decreed that man should have one body, one head, two arms and two legs: that each arm should be jointed in two places and end in one hand: that each hand should have four fingers and one thumb: that each finger should bear a flat finger-nail . . . and each leg shall be jointed twice and have one foot, and each foot five toes, and each toe shall end with a flat nail...Then God created woman, also, and in the same image, but with these differences, according to her nature: her voice should be of higher pitch than men: she should grow no beard: she should have two breasts ... And any creature that shall seem to be human, but is not formed thus is not human. It is neither man nor woman. It is a blasphemy against the true Image of God, and hateful in the sight of God.”_

“Wow, that’s hard core stuff.” Cisco piped.

Felicity gave him a sad smile. “Yes, it was. But I was too young to care about any of it, but my brother, David and our half-cousin, Rosalind protected as I was too young to understand.”

“Understand what?” Caitlin asked, worried.

“Well, my father was very strict, in our house there was a huge fireplace and surrounding it were a number of wooden panels with sayings, artistically burnt into them. _‘ONLY THE IMAGE OF GOD IS MAN. KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD. BLESSED IS THE NORM, and IN PURITY OUR SALVATION. The largest was the one on the back wall, hung to face the door which led to the yard. It reminded everyone who came in: WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT! There were others; THE NORM IS THE WILL OF GOD, and, REPRODUCTION IS THE ONLY HOLY PRODUCTION and, THE DEVIL IS THE FATHER OF DEVIATION, and a number of others about Offences and Blasphemies. Many of them were still obscure to me; others I had learnt something about._

_Offences, for instance. That was because the occurrence of an Offence was sometimes quite an impressive occasion. Usually the first sign that one had happened was that my father, Robert Queen, came into the house in a bad temper. Then, in the evening, he would call us all together, including everyone who worked on the farm. We would all kneel while he pro-claimed our repentance and led prayers for forgiveness._

_The next morning we would all be up before daylight and gather in the yard. As the sun rose we would sing a hymn while my father ceremonially slaughtered the two-headed calf, four-legged chicken, or whatever other kind of Offence it happened to be. Sometimes it would be a much queerer thing than those. . . . Nor were Offences limited to the livestock. Sometimes there would be some stalks of corn, or some vegetables, that my father produced and cast on the kitchen table in anger and shame. If it were merely a matter of a few rows of vegetables, they just came out and were destroyed. But if a whole field had gone wrong we would wait for good weather, and then set fire to it, singing hymns while it burnt. I used to find that a very fine sight. It was because my father was a careful and pious man with a keen eye for an Offence that we used to have more slaughtering and burnings than anyone else: but any suggestion that we were more afflicted with Offences than other people hurt and angered him. He had no wish at all to throw good money away, he pointed out. If our neighbours were as conscientious as ourselves, he had no doubt that their liquidations would far outnumber ours: unfortunately there were certain persons with elastic principles._

_So I learnt quite early to know what Offences were. They were things which did not look right — that is to say, did not look like their parents, or parent-plants. Usually there was only some small thing wrong, but however much or little was wrong it was an Offence, and if it happened among people it was a Blasphemy — at least, that was the technical term, though commonly both kinds were called Deviations.”_

Understanding dawned on them, “You’re a mutant…I mean different?” Thea asked.

“But, and I don’t mean to offend you but you look just like a normal person.” Oliver told her delicately.

“Non-taken. Physically I fit the bill but mentally not so much.” She told them, “My brother, my cousin and I are telepaths. And I’m the strongest so far. When I was little, if I got scared to over-excited my abilities would act up and if my parents had found out…it would have been bad. So they protected, started to train me to control my abilities. To understand the dangers of our family.”

“What are your powers exactly?” Barry asked.

“Telepathy, empathy, hypnosis, mind reading and control, memory alteration and erasure, illusion casting and astral projection. Basically all of Professor X’s abilities.” She listed out.

“Professor X?” Oliver asked her puzzled.

“Come on Oliver even you should know who that is.” Felicity sighed, “Look it up.” She told him.

“How did you get here?” Laurel asked.

“There was a battle between the Fringes and those who lived in our community, people died on both sides, my dad and four of friends to name a few. We finally escaped, I'm powerful enough to communicate long distances. I contacted a woman from, well we called Sealand but now I know now it was actually New Zealand. There seemed to be untouched by the atomic bombs; it looks just as it looks here. She helped us escape.” Felicity told them, “David has the ability to cross dimensions, so when he decided it was time for us to start a new we jumped here, I was seven by that time.”

“Well, I’m glad you came here.” Oliver kissed her.

“Me too.”

"So, to more important things, show us your powers!" Cisco piped gleefully. 

Note: the italics are from the book.


End file.
